Quick Signs Your Writing Screams AI, And How to Hide Them

Most AI assisted drafts do not give themselves away through facts or obvious mistakes. They give themselves away through a specific feeling. The text looks “fine,” but nothing lands. A reader senses that in seconds, often before they can explain what’s wrong.

This is not really about detectors. It is about what a human brain notices when it scans a page and decides whether to trust it. In this piece, I’ll name the quick signals that trigger the “this is generic” reaction, then I’ll show the workflow I use to keep voice and meaning intact when AI is in the process.

Voice gets lost not because AI cannot write “like a human,” but because the writer hands over meaning level decisions the writer should make themselves.

To avoid confusion, I use “voice” in a practical way. Not tone, not a set of favorite words. Voice is the chain of choices. What I claim, what I cut, what I prioritize, where I draw a boundary, and what I am willing to be specific about.

Quick signs a reader picks up instantly

A lot of “sound more human” advice assumes the problem is surface level. Sentence length, rhythm, contractions, conversational transitions. Those can help. But they are not what a reader checks first. The first check is simpler. Does this person seem to have decided anything.

That is why cosmetic “humanizing” often fails. It changes how the text sounds, not what it does.

Here are the three signals that usually matter most.

1) No position
The paragraph does not commit to a claim. It lists possibilities, definitions, tips, or balanced takes, then stops. It feels safe. Safety reads as distance. The reader cannot tell what you actually believe.

A quick test. Can you restate the paragraph in one sentence that contains a clear point. If you cannot, the paragraph will feel AI even if it is grammatically perfect.

2) No selection
Everything is included. Nothing is ranked. You get a wide, even coverage of ideas with no hierarchy. This is where “empty” shows up. The reader does not need more information. They need your judgement about what matters.

3) No responsibility
The text avoids risk. It hides behind neutral phrasing like “it can be helpful,” “many people,” “in some cases,” even when the writer clearly has a point. A human voice usually contains at least a few moments of specificity, where you own a statement and accept that someone may disagree.

If a paragraph has none of these signals, readers feel the genericness immediately. No amount of “make it more natural” will cover for it.

Where common advice helps, and where it breaks

Most guides repeat the same recommendations. Add examples and personal experience. Avoid clichés. Edit by hand. Vary sentence structure. Sometimes they suggest setting a default style instruction so the model is less likely to drift into stock phrasing. All of that can improve readability.

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The break happens when these tips are treated as the solution. They mostly operate on the surface. They can make a paragraph sound nicer while leaving the core problem untouched. The core problem is decision making. When the writer asks AI to “rewrite it better,” the model starts deciding what is important, what to emphasize, and what to smooth over. That is where voice gets washed out.

So, “hiding” AI signals is less about camouflage and more about taking back control of the decisions that create meaning.

How to hide the AI signals. 15 techniques that protect voice

I think in three layers: meaning, structure, surface. The list follows that order. The goal is simple. AI can help you generate and test. You still decide.

1) Frame the request as a thought, not a format
Not “write an article.” Try “help me sharpen argument X,” or “what is the strongest version of my claim.”

2) Lock your position before you generate
Write one sentence that states what you are saying. If you cannot write it, do not prompt yet.

3) Use AI to split your idea, not to assemble your essay
Ask for alternative framings, hidden assumptions, counterclaims. You are mapping the thought, not publishing it.

4) Ban neutrality when you do not want it
If you are writing a critique, say “do not balance this, do not soften it, do not turn it into ‘on the one hand’.” Neutrality is often the fastest path to generic output.

5) Work paragraph by paragraph
Feeding a full document and asking for a global rewrite encourages averaging. Paragraph work keeps you in control of each decision.

6) Give every paragraph a job
Inform, argue, explain a mechanism, cut noise, bridge to the next point. If a paragraph does none of these, it will feel empty.

7) Never prompt “make it more human”
It is vague. The model will add warmth and filler. Your meaning will not get sharper.

8) Use AI as an opponent
“Where is this argument weak.” “What would a smart critic attack.” This keeps authorship with you.

9) Remove “sounds good” lines
If you can delete a sentence and the paragraph does not change, the sentence is decorative. Decorative is what readers call AI.

10) Cap the length of the output
Short constraints force prioritization. Long outputs invite padding.

11) Build the structure yourself
Headlines, order, emphasis, what goes first, what stays later. Structure is a decision map. Do not outsource it.

12) Separate generation and editing
First explore. Then choose and cut. When you blend them, you often get smooth and blurry at the same time.

13) Use real context as a constraint
Project, audience, situation, what triggered the piece, what you are trying to resolve. Without constraints, the model defaults to generic advice.

14) Verify meaning by retelling
Ask for a one sentence summary of your paragraph. If the summary drifts or becomes too general, your decision was not fixed, rewrite the paragraph.

15) Do the final word choice manually
This is where voice actually lives. Verbs, qualifiers, where you stop, where you let a sentence be slightly sharp because it is true.

How to scale without losing meaning

Meaning usually disappears when AI starts making decisions instead of you. It rarely happens in one step. It happens through convenience. “Add more detail.” “Make it smoother.” “Rewrite the whole thing.” After a few rounds, the piece follows the model’s internal logic, not your hierarchy.

There is also a common trap. Optimizing for “looking human” instead of being clear. If the goal becomes “remove AI tone,” you end up polishing surfaces. The reader still feels the emptiness, just in cleaner sentences.

If you keep ownership of selection and hierarchy, you can use AI heavily and still keep your voice. Voice is not a filter. It is your decisions showing through.

Limits

AI can imitate speech patterns. It cannot reliably decide what matters without an external frame. That is why surface level “humanizing” works only after you have a position and strict selection. If those are missing, you can change rhythm and wording all day and still end up with a paragraph that says nothing.

Conclusion

Hiding “AI signals” is not really about hiding. It is about refusing to outsource meaning. AI can help you draft faster. It cannot replace the part where you decide what you are saying.

Next step. Take one AI assisted draft and ask, paragraph by paragraph: what is the point here, and where did I make that decision. If you cannot point to it, that is the spot that will read as AI. If you strip this down to one rule, it is selection. If selection is yours, the text reads like you. If selection is the model’s, it reads like everyone.